Black hole ?

[Jack G]

I'm building an Insant Catboat and am about to glass the hull. She has 4" tape on all her chines and transome edges, as prescribed. My question is: Is fairing the tape with fairing compound to try to get a fair hull a Black Hole of time, and still showing the taping anyway, ....or not ? Also, (I've read both) do you do it under the cloth or over. It's my first boat, so she may not be a Gold Plater anyway.

[Rogue Sailor]

No fairing compound needed. Feather the edges to be overlapped using a random orbit sander with 120 grit. Later, feather the overlapping cloth. You shoulnd't see any edges at all after final coatings with epoxy.

Joe

[NormMessinger]

Interesting thing about boat building, it apparently does not matter much how it is done. If it did there would not be so many opinions. Do you get the feeling I'm going to disagree with Rogue?

I would sand the edges of your tape to get rid of the exagurated ridge the bias leaves and lay you glass skin prior to putting down any fairing googue. I would also use 80 grit because you want as much tooth for the subsequent layer of epoxy to grip. After epoxy cures adhesion is primarily mechanical. Once you have your boat glassed you only need to fair where necessary. After all is fair and you are ready to paint, go to 100 or 120 grit. It is best to put down subsequent layers of googue while the laayer is still in the green stage so you get a molecular bond.

[JimD]

:D ok, my two cents worth - As Rogue says don't fair with thickened epoxy, just sand the tape edge smooth and flush. It don't really matter all that much what grit you use to sand off the ridge of the tape seam or if you use the power sander of your choice or sand by hand, but as Norm says its better to leave a roughed surface to give the next layer something to grab onto and a coarser grit will get it done faster.

Also, have you already cast the lead insert to ballast the centerboard? If not and you are not looking forward to melting lead in a pot you can always use the Neanderthal approach that I used to keep my kick-up rudder in the water: Go to your friendly neighbourhood fishing store, buy a 10 lb lead weight and pound it flat with a sledge hammer. Then jigsaw cut a suitable hole traced onto your board and fix it in place with thickened epoxy. Fiberglass cloth over it and paint. No one will ever know the difference :D

[skuthorp]

Hey, I think that Black Hole is a good name for a boat - very accurate
How about laminating sheets of lead into your centreboard?